Chennai, 26 May

A fourth MLA from the AIADMK's rebel camp on Tuesday tendered his resignation from the Tamil Nadu Assembly, bringing down the strength of the Opposition party in the 234-member House to 43 from 47.

Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subaya met Speaker JCD Prabhakar and submitted his resignation letter, shortly after AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami-led faction called on the latter with a plea not to accept the resignation of three AIADMK legislators who had stepped down on 25 May.

Prabhakar later said the resignation of Subaya was accepted.

The Palaniswami camp cited alleged legal and procedural lapses behind the three MLAs' move on Monday and wanted the Speaker not to accept their resignation.

The party claimed the three MLAs joined the ruling TVK even before their resignation was notified.

Subaya is the fourth MLA from the rebel C Ve Shanmugam-SP Velumani camp to have quit as MLA and said he did so in the interest of his constituency people.

He parried questions on whether he would join the TVK but said, "It is not a sin to meet Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay."

"I will meet him if I get the chance," Subaya told reporters. Soon after his resignation, he was seen with senior TVK leader and state minister N Anand.

Amid the developments in the AIADMK camp, Congress MP S Jothimani expressed concern over "horse-trading" in Tamil Nadu, and said her party should not support such moves by the ruling TVK since the national party itself has been at the receiving end of such manoeuvres.

TVK leader and Revenue Minister KA Sengottaiyan denied the horse-trading allegations.

On his part, Speaker Prabhakar insisted he was performing his duties within the legal framework and the powers vested in him. He said he accepts the resignation letters if they are in the prescribed format. "Other than that, I have nothing to say."

Earlier, senior AIADMK leaders, 'whip' Agri SS Krishnamurthy and Rajya Sabha MP IS Inbadurai, met Speaker Prabhakar and submitted a representation urging him not to accept the resignations of Maragatham Kumaravel, P Sathyabama and S Jayakumar, which has since been notified in a government gazette.

Krishnamurthy said that since their earlier plea seeking the disqualification of the 25 MLAs for defying party diktat to vote against the government in its 13 May floor test was pending before the Speaker, he cannot accept the resignation of the concerned legislators.

"We had sought action against 25 AIADMK MLAs under the anti-defection law for defying Palaniswami's diktat on confidence vote. The Speaker had said it was under his consideration. Fearing action under the anti-defection law, the three tendered their resignation. When the earlier plea is pending, the Speaker accepting their resignations contravenes the rules. We filed a plea (on Tuesday) on behalf of the AIADMK, saying he should not accept their resignation," he told reporters.

Within five minutes of tendering their resignation, a "laminated TVK membership card was given" to the three persons in the Secretariat itself, he claimed.

"People are asking if this is the Secretariat or TVK headquarters. If this government encourages such resignations, there will be heightened horse-trading; the government should come forward to stop this," he said.

Chief Minister Vijay had promised clean governance. "To establish his rule through the back door, this government is doing horse-trading at the speed of a horse," the senior leader alleged.

Inbadurai, also the AIADMK Advocates' Wing Secretary, said that their side had sought action against the rebel MLAS under the anti-defection law, and that plea is pending. "The legal issue is he (Speaker) can't accept their resignation," under such circumstances.

"They met a TVK minister before their resignation was notified...and they enacted a drama of formally joining (late in the evening). Still, the notification of their resignation (in a government gazette) had not come. So we have sought that their resignation should not be accepted," he said.

MLAs cannot resign when action under the anti-defection law is sought. "You can't escape through the back door," he added. The party will move the court if there was no action from the Speaker, senior AIADMK leader and Kanniyakumari MLA Thalavai N Sundaram said.

Kumaravel, Sathyabama and Jayakumar had resigned as MLAs on Monday and later joined the TVK, drawing sharp response from traditional archrivals DMK and AIADMK who called it "horse-trading."

The Speaker initially declined to accept Subaya's letter as it did not conform to the rules. Immediately, he took back the typed letter and within minutes submitted the handwritten one which Prabhakar accepted.

Subaya is among the breakaway MLAs supporting former state ministers Shanmugam and Velumani and had voted in favour of the TVK government during the floor test in the Assembly on May 13.

A TVK source said Kumaravel, Sathyabama and Jayakumar are likely to receive party tickets to contest in the ensuing byelections on its whistle symbol.

Following the developments, the Shanmugam-Velumani camp went into a huddle.

Meanwhile, Speaker Prabhakar said he was performing within the powers vested on him. "My job is to see if the (resignation) letters are appropriate and work within the legal framework to accept it. I am performing within House rules," he said in response to reporters' queries.

The AIADMK has given 3-page letter and he has to carefully peruse it. "I have no personal whims and fancies and will work according to the rules," he added.

Congress MP Jothimani lashed out at "horse-trading" in the state and said the party cannot adopt different standards for TN and other states.

Measures taken by the TVK should be aimed at strengthening democracy and not weakening it, and the Congress party's moral responsibility is to air any divergent views in such situations.

"It would be wrong if anyone from the Congress justified horse-trading. The first weapon that the BJP took to weaken democracy, and Congress is horse-trading," and used it against elected party governments, she alleged.

"Congress party can never take a dual stand of supporting horse-trading in Tamil Nadu and oppose it outside the state. If Congress performs as a force that weakens democracy, it will be a historic betrayal to Gandhi, Nehru and the ideology," she added.

She also highlighted party leader Rahul Gandhi's "uncompromising" struggle for principles.

The Congress, which had walked out of the DMK-led alliance post April 23 polls to support the maiden TVK government, is now part of the Vijay-led Cabinet with two ministers.

DMK leader R S Bharathi also lashed out at the TVK government, saying there seemed to be no difference between the Secretariat and the party office for them.

Meanwhile, Minister Sengottaiyan denied there were "horse-trading" attempts in the state.

"The state knows who did horse-trading, who tried to become chief minister with the help of DMK," he said in an apparent reference to Palaniswami, in the wake of some reports that DMK and AIADMK planned to join hands to prevent a TVK government post polls.

Asked if the resigned AIADMK MLAs who had joined TVK will be fielded from the same constituencies they represented, he said, "time will tell."